'This is not the worst job in Britain'

JOHN ARMITT, the new chief of Railtrack, has denied he had taken on the 'worst job in the world'. The former chief executive of construction and engineering group Costain, said of his new £450,000-a-year role: 'I don't see it as the worst job in Britain - but it is clearly a job which has a very significant challenge to it.'

The move is one of several changes to inject desperately needed financial and railway expertise into the most senior management levels at Railtrack, now in forced administration.

Armitt - who also used to head Union Railways, responsible for the planning of the Channel Tunnel high-speed link - is respected within the construction and rail industries. He said his opening mission was to make Railtrack 'an attractive company to the people who take it over - whoever that may be'.

But he emphasised that Railtrack's principal stakeholders were the travelling public. Of his future dealings with the Government, Armitt responded: 'If the customer is happy, I suspect Mr Byers [the Transport Secretary] will be happy. What Mr Byers, I suspect, does not like, is when the public are unhappy with the rail system.'

Armitt, who quit Costain in April 'to develop other interests', will have to deal with poor staff morale at Railtrack. Employees lost thousands of pounds when the company share price plunged, and face job uncertainties. He said: 'People's morale is good when the company is performing well...people know when they have done not such a good job and will recognise that they will get a kick up the backside.' He said his key message to staff is to ensure 'that they get support from their management'.

Asked what support he needed from the Government, Armitt said ministers had recently provided more funds 'so that we can pay our suppliers and our contractors...I don't really need any more from the Government other than to know that I can pay my people what is their due.'

The new bosses for Railtrack were announced by administrators Ernst & Young. There will be no new chairman. Armitt becomes chief executive, while 62-year-old Jim Cornell - who has 36 years experience at British Rail - is brought in as non-executive director.

Separately, new figures revealed that Railtrack was responsible for a huge increase in train delays in the first eight months of this year. There was an increase of 2,892 signal failures, each of 10 minutes or more - a rise of nearly 20% over the same period 12 months ago. Last year, Railtrack signal failures resulted in 24,979 delays; the equivalent to 173 wasted days.